Exodus 32:1-14

The Golden Calf

32When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
2Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.
3So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
4He took the gold from them, formed it in a mould,* and cast an image of a calf; and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
5When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.
6They rose early the next day, and offered burnt-offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.

7 The Lord said to Moses, Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;
8they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
9The Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.
10Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.

11 But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12Why should the Egyptians say, It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.
13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever.
14And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.